Saturday, November 05, 2005

46th in the "Ward" series

Sometimes the Drunkablog finds himself yearning for the good old days when almost anyone could whip up--in hours and for far less than you might imagine--your basic commie-style purge.

Usually, of course, this nostalgia overcomes me when I read about the doings of Ward Churchill and his many friends. And as I've mentioned recently, there's been a lot going on, so much in fact that my yearning has become nearly tragic.

Today, for example, Pirate Ballerina takes a closer look at the "five stooges"--the committee selected by CU's Standing Committee on Research Misconduct to investigate the charges of academic fraud against Churchill:

One would think that with all the public attention on the actions of [the SCRM] vis á vis its treatment of the Ward Churchill investigation, SCRM would approach the task of selecting the final investigating committee members with care, nay, with great fear and trembling. One would think SCRM would select professional historians and scholars with impeccable academic credentials, and just as importantly, no obvious predisposition toward Churchill's fate.

One would be oh so very wrong. SCRM announced last Tuesday (and then, only after a Colorado Open Records request from the Denver Post required it; it's interesting that the Post has since then remained silent on the information their request revealed) the names of the members of the committee charged with conducting a full investigation of charges against Ward Churchill. Of the five, only one—Professor Marjorie McIntosh—appears to meet all of [CU's] earlier-noted selection criteria.

PB goes on to detail the outrageous stacking of the committee in Churchill's favor, and the all-too-familiar combination of arrogance and stupidity exhibited by the (mostly) far-left scholars serving on it. Read the whole thing, but for you harried moderns the Drunkablog offers a few keywords so you can discuss this frightening joy committee knowledgeably at holiday cocktail parties: